


Hero Signal

by tatersalad5001



Series: Duel World (GX) [2]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! GX
Genre: Duel Links, Duel Monsters, Duelling, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Not Really Character Death, Post-Canon, Post-Graduation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-25
Updated: 2017-11-25
Packaged: 2019-01-30 08:15:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12649668
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tatersalad5001/pseuds/tatersalad5001
Summary: A new threat has surfaced in Duel Links. Chazz and Jesse race to find its source and stop it, but an old friend may have beaten them to the punch. What exactly is he doing here, and where has he been all this time? Sequel to Rainbow Path





	Hero Signal

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, ya'll! Originally, when I wrote Rainbow Path, having GX characters in Duel Links was but a dream, about as much as a playable Yugi Muto. But we got playable Yugi Muto, and we got Duel World GX, and I was so happy! I still am! But Rainbow Path has some clear differences from the reality of Duel World GX. Rainbow Path took place after Season 4, Jaden wasn't there at all, and Jesse would've been 'playable' with Rainbow Dragon on his side. But Duel World GX is kind of all over the place (Like Duel World DM, honestly) in the show's timeline, Jaden was the first person to show up, and Jesse did show up, but unplayable, and without Rainbow Dragon. (Speaking of Jesse, I started writing this before Jesse's event and, of course, finished it after, but I hope he comes back soon!) Rainbow Path was just a fun, self-indulgent fanfic, so of course this isn't a surprise, I didn't really expect Duel World GX to be like Rainbow Path. (Of course Jaden would be the first to show up!)
> 
> But this got me thinking. In the canon of Rainbow Path, what would get Jaden to show up? And of course, when Duel World GX was released, there was a lot going on. There was the Different Dimension Tower event (which I'm excited to see is coming back soon!), and some interesting glitches popped up (notably for me, there was a day where the Card Flipper Campaign wouldn't let me play the game at all, and another day where I didn't see the Vagabound once despite checking multiple times). This of course isn't a dig at Konami -- it's no surprise to see bugs in the game with an update that big. But I thought it would be interesting to connect it all within Rainbow Path's canon: Jaden's arrival, the DD Tower, the glitches. And this is that.
> 
> Of course, this adds post-season 4 Jaden to the mix. Season 4 Jaden had a lot going on internally. A lot of guilt, depression, unwilling to involve his friends in his struggles so they're out of danger, treating every duel like it's for survival and not having any fun from it anymore. Jaden wouldn't pull a complete 180 out of his issues immediately, and I wanted to address that, too. Seeing Jaden recover was important to me, and I didn't want it rushed. So some of that's here, too.
> 
> As with Rainbow Path, some characterizations here may be off or wrong, and I apologize, I've done my best. I didn't want to try to write Jesse's accent this time, I'm not good at it, but it hasn't vanished, I promise, he still has the good ol' southern drawl. Sorry for rambling on for so long, I hope you enjoy this as much as I did! (It probably could've been longer, but gosh, three weeks of this between exams and quizzes and labs and homework assignments is enough time spent on this for me. I loved writing this but I'm so glad this is finished.)

"Goblin Thief could be good. It'd work well for most decks, but for yours, I'm not so sure," Jesse mused. "You wanna keep your monsters on the field and use 'em to Special Summon more powerful ones. Effect damage can be good. But if you draw this when you need something like Level Up, you're in for a world of hurt."

"Yeah, I see your point. Probably should just leave it out," Chazz mumbled. He ran a hand through his hair and groaned. "I hate deck building and rearranging."

Jesse grinned at him. "Well, that's what I'm here for! I could do this all day. Between the two of us, we're sure to make a good deck." 

"You and Jaden both." Chazz rolled his eyes. "I'll never understand you two."

"Besides, it's not like Duel Links has programmed a lot of good strategies for Ojama decks." Don't rise to the provocation, Jesse, just focus on the task at hand. He went back to looking through Chazz's Ojama deck, trying to find any cards that could be good for this new one. "If you wanna stay ahead, you gotta adjust."

"I know, I know, you don't need to spell it out for me," Chazz grumbled. Chazz was going through cards he wasn't using in any deck right now, which honestly, would probably make up the bulk of this deck. "Let's just get it over with."

"Right." Jesse put Ojama Country down in a pile of cards that wouldn't be considered right now.

Once the Destiny Board of Doom event had ended, things in Duel Links calmed down quite a bit. There were some weird events here and there, like Kaiba's brother attacking everyone with some hamburger monster, or some random guy that looked like a zombie running around, but nothing quite as dangerous as before. For the most part, Jesse and Chazz kept their heads low. At the moment, Jesse was focused on the...less strange events, while Chazz seemed to be mostly concerned with improving his own deck and strategies. They didn't always spend their time in Duel Links together, but they were hanging out together more than when Jesse first arrived, and today was a special case. Chazz wanted to make a new deck, and had figured LV monsters were one of his best options. Going through all his cards alone could be a daunting task, however, so Jesse happily volunteered to help. 

Thus, for today, the two were in the Card Studio, looking through cards. Despite this all being Chazz's idea, he was clearly not having as fun of a time as Jesse. To be fair, though, that usually seemed to be the case. Jesse didn't let it ruffle his feathers at all.

The two sat in silence for awhile, just shuffling through cards, until Chazz eventually spoke up.

"So, how far have you made it in the event? The tower thing?"

”Ah, that. I’m not entirely sure, to be honest.” Jesse frowned. “I think I made it past floor 10? With the big boss guy? Ain’t got a clue past that. I can’t say this event’s my favorite.”

”Yeah, it’s not mine, either,” Chazz agreed. For a brief moment, he considered Dark Mimic LV 1 before setting it aside. “Dueling against Duel Monsters? Really? I had enough of that when we were dimension hopping at the academy, thanks.”

Jesse gave a nervous chuckle. Between his soul being sealed away outside of his body and his body itself being possessed for most of that adventure, he missed the bulk of it. He could almost understand where Chazz was coming from, though. Once it was over, everyone caught him up on what he’d missed.

The event itself wasn’t a bad idea. Keeping Life Points between duels made it interesting and fresh; it was like a survival scenario. Jesse just wished those Duel Monsters weren’t so dang annoying to duel.

"Well, it's supposed to end soon," Jesse pointed out. "Maybe the next event will be better."

"Maybe." Chazz paused in his sorting. He seemed to be reading the effect of whatever card he stopped on. "What's your opinion on Dark Lucius?"

Jesse shrugged. "Depends on what else we put in this deck. At the very least, you can try it out and see how it goes."

Chazz nodded and set the card aside in its own pile.

* * *

"Huh, that's odd."

Chazz looked up when Jesse spoke. A few minutes ago, Chazz had started putting the final touches on his deck. He'd run a thought or two by Jesse, but Jesse really wasn't needed for anything otherwise. Watching Chazz just stare at his cards was kinda boring. Rather than do that , Jesse opted to pull out his laptop. Plenty of dueling competitions were going on right now, and he figured he'd just check up on those and see how some of the participating duelists were doing. This, however, wasn't expected.

"Sounds like there's some kind of glitch going on in Duel Links," he said aloud. "Some duelists' cards aren't working right. Their stats won't show up for them, sometimes their names won't, either. They're just empty gray cards."

"That's definitely weird." Chazz looked down at his cards. "And that's a pretty big issue, too. Shouldn't they be trying to fix that?"

Jesse read forward on the page he was on. "I guess it is being worked on."

"Still, this whole place is made just for dueling. That really shouldn't happen," Chazz pointed out.

"I don't really know a whole lot about this virtual word stuff," Jesse said with a shrug. "I'm just glad that none of my cards are acting like that."

Ruby jumped on Jesse's shoulder and purred in agreement. If something like that happened to his friends, Jesse wasn't sure what he'd do.

Chazz snorted. "Whatever. You're way too easy to please, Anderson. But they better fix that bug before it spreads." He stood up and put his deck in his pocket. "Anyway, I think i'm done here for now. Uh...thanks, for, uh..." He looked away. "...your help."

"No problem, Chazz!" Jesse smiled as he began to shut down his laptop. "And let me know if your deck doesn't work out for you. It's always more fun to work on a deck together!"

"Yeah, sure."

It was time to leave the Card Studio. From here, they were going to part ways; Chazz wanted to test out his new deck in random duels, while Jesse was planning on making some progress in the current event. Jesse figured Chazz would find an opponent quickly. Duelists were always all over the place here, just looking for a duel. Jesse went directly towards the card shop, while Chazz was taking it slower, seeing if anyone outside the studio wanted to duel before heading west. By the time they both made it to the card shop, neither of them had seen any duelists.

They were both walking separately with different plans in mind, but Jesse walked back towards Chazz again. Something here wasn't sitting right with him.

"Hey, Chazz." The words were out of Jesse's mouth almost before he reached him. "Aren't there more duelists around than this, usually? I mean, it's possible that a lot of people are just logged off right now, but...something's weird about it."

"No, I think you might be onto something," Chazz agreed. "It's way emptier than usual. I haven't even been getting any notifications that I can duel the Vagabond since yesterday."

The Vagabond was an AI programmed into Duel Links, meant to help duelists improve themselves. Duels against the Vagabond always included some restriction making it more difficult to win, but win or lose, the duel could yield good rewards for those who chose to challenge him. Normally the Vagabond could be dueled at least a few times a day, if one were logged into Duel Links for enough time. The Vagabond being unavailable all day was very weird, indeed.

"And it's not just that," Chazz went on. "Earlier, I saw some people online mention they were having problems logging in. Something kept forcing them to log out, and they couldn't get in no matter how many times they restarted the connection."

"That ain't good." Jesse swept his gaze around the immediate area. There were a few duelists in this area at least, but he still had a bad feeling. "I wonder what's going on."

Jesse wasn’t going to stop here. He’d been planning on going to the event, which took place in the Different Dimension Tower. To get to the tower, he’d need the help of the tour guide, who was usually stationed around the PvP Arena. (He wasn’t going to kid himself here, if he tried to go to the tower alone, he’d get lost. It didn’t make any difference that he’d already been there multiple times.) That was still further west from here. However, a big part of Jesse wanted to ignore that and try to solve this mystery. The best way he could think of to start would be to figure out how many people were currently logged in. That’d still take him in the same direction: west, forward. This part of Duel Links had nothing to offer him.

“I’m gonna keep going,” he told Chazz. “There’s a couple of people here willing to duel. I don’t know if...”

”Nah, I’m with you,” Chazz said. “I don’t like what’s going on. If we’re both going to try to figure it out, we might as well work together. Besides, these losers aren’t worth the Chazz’s time anyway.”

Of course, there was definitely a possibility that this was just a glitch in the system, and neither of them could fix that. Regardless, it made sense to make sure. After the Destiny Board of Doom event, nothing really seemed impossible here.

”Glad to know we’re on the same page, then!” Jesse replied with a smile. “Let’s get going then.”

They walked for about ten feet before Chazz stopped.

”Do you hear that?”

”Hear what?” Jesse stopped next to Chazz. The two of them stayed silent, until Jesse did hear something.

”...trap, Hero Barrier!” 

Jesse frowned. It was just there words and then back to silence, but that was likely what Chazz had heard before. “Sounds like a duel. Someone’s using a Hero deck...” He gave Chazz a hesitant glance. “Aster Phoenix?” Aster preferred his Destiny Heroes, but he occassionally used Elemental Heroes. It could be him; Jesse had seen him around here a couple of times before. He barely knew the guy, but it was clear that Chazz did. Those two certainly had an...interesting rivalry.

”I doubt it, he hasn’t been using Elementals lately,” Chazz mumbled. His voice was vacant, he was staring at the ground like it beat him in a duel in only one turn. A moment later, and his face completely relaxed. “It can’t be.”

“Can’t be what?”

"Come on, Jesse, move it or lose it!" With no more explanation than that, Chazz took off. Chazz...never really did any running at all if he could help it. Jesse stared at him for a second, frozen in place, before running after him.

It wasn't hard to figure out where the voice came from. A duel had broken out in front of the PvP Arena. Jesse was surprised to see one of the duelists was the tour guide, since he hadn't even been sure the tour guide could duel at all. But if that was a surprise, their opponent completely blew Jesse away.

There were a lot of possibilities Jesse had considered in this situation. Someone was hacking into the virtual world to make it act this way, perhaps. A few glitches in the system making some duelists completely unable to duel for now. Another Shadow Game, maybe. Something like what had happened their third year at Duel Academy could be happening here, he supposed. And Jesse doubted he was coming close to thinking of everything that could be happening in this moment. But, inside all these possibilities, Jesse somehow hadn't expected to see that duelist again, right here, right now. If Chazz's reaction was anything to go by, he hadn't, either. The two of them really should've known better.

"My turn, then," Jaden Yuki announced as he drew from his deck.

”Well I’ll be,” Jesse whispered, unable to tear his gaze from Jaden.

How long had it been? They’d barely had any contact since graduation. Jaden hadn’t made himself an easy person to get ahold of. Jesse had definitely been hoping he’d finally get to see Jaden again here, but...it’d been hard to believe it would actually happen. That Jaden would actually show up. Yet here he was, after all this time.

”I can’t believe it. The slacker actually showed up,” Chazz commented.

Chazz seemed to be shacking himself out of the shock quicker than Jesse. Life was returning to his voice, and he had at least recovered enough to make snide remarks at Jaden. He was probably already surveying the scene. Jesse still needed a moment.

”Well, if Jaden’s here, then he already probably went and solved the mystery for us,” Chazz went on. “So that must mean whoever he’s dueling—“ He quickly cut himself off with a sharp breath.

That wasn’t a good sign. Jesse tore his gaze away to look at the opponent: the tour guide. Their face and, well, just about their entire body was still hidden by the cloak. Yet, everything about them was different. Their stance, the confident way they held cards Jesse had never seen them hold before. Not to mention, Jesse could’ve sworn their entire body was surrounded by a disgustingly bright white light.

Their field mostly consisted of face-downs, but one card, a continuous trap, stood facing up. Jesse could feel himself drawn towards it. He read its name aloud, “Light of Destruction.”

”I don’t even want to know how this guy got possessed by the Light,” Chazz spat.

The Light of Destruction. That had come up in their second year of Duel academy, hadn’t it? Jesse, of course, hadn’t been around then, but he’d been told bits and pieces. He knew enough to know that it was bad, it nearly possessed everyone attending the Duel Academy’s makn branch (including Chazz), something even worse almost happened, and Jaden had been able to stop it. Maybe there was something involving destiny in there? It sounded like quite the adventure, and Jesse wasn’t sure whether he was glad or disappointed that he’d missed it.

”Well, we don’t have to,” he pointed out. “I’m starting to think it’s a good thing. If this is where this all ended up, I can’t even imagine figuring it out.”

Jaden, meanwhile, was looking closely at his cards. His field was empty. He appeared wide open, a step away from losing. But Jesse recognized that look in his eyes, the smirk on his face. A duel isn’t over until the last card’s played.

”I activate Polymerization! This lets me fuse my Elemental Heroes Avian and Burstinatrix to form Elemental Hero Flamed Wingman! Next I activate the card Heated Heart, which gives my Wingman 500 extra attack points.” Jaden played his cards almost quicker than he could announce his moves. He knew exactly what his best available strategies were. “Time to battle. Flamed Wingman attacks your monster.” The tour guide’s monster, formerly in attack mode, was gone before Jesse could even see what it was. “Now Flamed Wingman’s attack activates. You lose life points equal to your monster’s attack points.” 

The tour guide’s life points dropped to zero like a rock.

”That’s game,” Jaden ended with. He flashed his opponent his signature pose.

”This isn’t the end, Jaden Yuki,” they warned. The white glow surrounding their presence began to fade. “You cannot dim out the light forever. Everything will be mine, even here in this virtual world. I will return.”

Just as the light was completely extinguished, the tour guide too was gone. Jesse gave the event notifications a glance, but the event wasn’t supposed to end yet. Where’d the tour guide go, and why? Yeah, he had no idea what was happening.

Jaden, in the meantime, had already begun putting his deck away before the tour guide had even finished speaking. He didn’t look at them, not even as they disappeared. Once they were gone, he turned around to walk away. Away from the duel. Away towards the Gate. Away, to leave Duel Links.

”Wait!” Before Jesse knew what he was doing, he was running towards Jaden, Chazz right beside him. Neither of them stopped until they were right next to him. “Why’re you leaving so soon, Jay?”

”Yeah, slacker, you just got here. There’s no need to run off right away,” Chazz added.

The second he heard them, Jaden stopped. He turned around to face them, eyes huge. He tried to speak, fumbling over his words until he finally settled on, “Chazz? Jesse?”

”Jaden Yuki.” Jesse grinned at him, barely holding back a laugh. “I was starting to think you’d never show up. What brings you here?”

“Well, you know.” Whatever expression was on Jesse’s face must have spoken volumes, given how quickly Jaden picked up that Jesse did not, in fact, know. “We told you about the Light of Destruction, right? It’s not as strong as before, but it’s still around. I still have to stop it, so I’ve been chasing it down. It got a hold of someone who works on Duel Links this time. Guess it transferred itself in.”

Chazz rolled his eyes. “Of course you’re still trying to save the world. Is that all you do anymore?”

”A hero’s work is never over, right?” Jaden responded. His voice went quiet, hollow, and he couldn’t seem to being himself to look at them as he spoke. “So, looks like you guys have been hanging out here, huh?”

”Yup! Chazz got here before I did. Didn’t take long for us to find each other, though,” Jesse told him. “And now we’re great pals, huh, Chazz?” He leaned over to gently elbow Chazz’s arm, a smile dancing onto his face.

”What? Ew, no. You’re not a slacker, I guess, but you’re still as much of a dork as he is. I’m not friends with dorks.” Chazz shoved Jesse’s arm away from him. Jesse’s smile grew bigger. “We just...work together on duel strategies and compare notes on events and rankings and stuff. That’s all.”

”Wow, we sure hang out and work together a lot for being ‘not friends’, then,” Jesse shot lightly back. 

“It’s not like there’s anyone better around...” Chazz mumbled.

Of course they were friends. Of course Jesse knew that, and of course Chazz knew it. He’d deny it and continue to deny it, but that’s just how Chazz is. Jesse knew that. The denial didn’t bother him at all, and his teasing in return wasn’t meant to be mean-spirited. It was all meant in good fun.

If Chazz wanted him to stop, though, he absolutely would. He had no idea if that's what was going on now. But, he figured, it’d be better to back off anyway. 

Jaden chuckled. “Sounds like a blast! I really wish I could stay and join you. There’s so many duelists here I’d love to duel. But...”

”But what?!” Jaden paused for only a second, but that second was all Chazz needed. He grabbed Jaden by the wrist before he could even make a move to leave. Jaden froze. If he really wanted to break out of Chazz’s grip, Jesse had no doubt he could. But Jaden didn’t make amy attempt to do so. “The world’s not gonna end if you stop for a second. I doubt you have some pressing lead you have to follow right now. Do you?”

”Well...” Jaden looked away again as Chazz tried to make direct eye comtact. “...This was my lead, and I’m done here...”

”Yeah, that’s what I figured,” Chazz snorted. “So take a short break and catch up with us for once. I mean, geez, you took off during graduation and we haven’t seen you since. It’s like you don’t want us around or something.”

Jaden stayed quiet.

Chazz narrowed his eyes. “Yeah, we need to talk.”

* * *

The three of them ended up sitting by the fountain near the Gate. Chazz, it seemed, was very determined to talk out whatever was going on. Jesse had to admit, he was as well. More than anything, he was worried. If Jaden kept trying to handle every problem and take on every enemy alone, it might not work out in the end. It wouldn't have during the last year of Duel Academy. Jesse would be more than willing to give whatever help Jaden needed if he just asked, not just because he owed it to him after Jaden saved him from that alternate dimension, but because Jaden was his friend, too. Chazz would probably want to help, too. And Jaden had plenty of other friends who felt the same way, who would save the world with him all over again if he just asked. Why wouldn't he? Why did he want to do it all alone?

Not too far away, a few of their duel spirits had come out to play. Ojama Yellow had popped up, probably wanting to say something, but now Winged Kuriboh and Ruby were chasing him around the area, happily trilling. For a moment, Jesse thought he saw Yubel sitting a few feet away, watching the other spirits. The next second, they seemed to notice him, and then they vanished. It happened so fast, he couldn't be sure it had been real.

If it was...well, it was awkward. How could it not be? Anyone would feel weird around the person (--er, duel monster) that took control of their body and sealed their soul inside their ace monster. A lot happened back then. Jesse wasn't sure exactly how he felt about it. He just knew that he wasn't really mad at Yubel for it. At the time, Yubel had been hurt, not really in their right mind. They were just doing what they thought they needed to. Maybe they felt bad about it now, or maybe they didn't. That still didn't make it great for Jesse, but hey, Jaden trusted them now, and Jesse trusted Jaden. That was enough for him to trust them now. 

"Jaden, do you really not want us around?" Jesse asked.

Jaden paused, seemingly trying to figure out exactly what he wanted to say, before letting out a small sigh. "...It's complicated."

"Then uncomplicate it for us, slacker," Chazz demanded. "What's your problem with us?"

"I don't have a problem with you guys!" Jaden retorted. "You're both fine. Neither of you did anything wrong. It's not like that."

Jesse reached out and lightly grasped Jaden by the wrist. "We're not mad at you. Or, well," he stopped, glancing briefly at Chazz before turning his attention back to Jaden, "I'm not, anyway. I just don't understand. What's going on?"

The two of them used to be so in sync when they first met. Sometimes they could practically read each other's mind. Now, Jesse didn't have the faintest idea what Jaden was thinking. That connection broke, somewhere along the way. So much had happened. But Jaden was still his friend, and he'd still do anything to help.

Jaden frowned, going back to thinking it out. "Trouble seems to follow me," he finally said. Chazz opened his mouth to speak, but Jaden held his hands up in the air to stop him. "I'm not being self-centered, Chazz, it's an observation. Think about everything that happened in Duel Academy. I mean, maybe the Society of Light stuff would've happened even if I wasn't around, but since I have the power of Darkness, I would've had to stop it anyway. The Sacred Beasts needed a strong dueling presence to be revived, and I certainly had some part in that. Yubel only targeted Duel Academy and the students there to get at me. When we went to the other dimensions, that was all part of that, too, and I...hurt a lot of people in the process. And the whole thing with Nightshroud, well, was because of everything else. Even when I was a kid, friends I duelled against kept getting hurt. Hey--" Jaden frowned, leaning his head back to look behind him. "No offense for any of that, by the way. It's not your fault, I know you had good intentions, and we're better now." Jesse didn't hear or see anything from the empty air behind Jaden in response, but Jaden smiled back at it anyway.

"So what?" Chazz asked. "Whether that's actually happening or not, you always come out on top, right? So it doesn't matter. It's no big deal."

"But it is!" Jaden insisted. "You're not getting it."

"Then explain it to us!" Chazz shot back.

Jesse was taking a backseat on this one for now. He wanted to help, absolutely, but Chazz seemed to have this one covered. Besides, Chazz had more experience with all of this stuff. He had more of the story than Jesse did. Jesse was more than happy to let him take point, and then Jesse would provide backup if he needed it. Right now, he was just watching them go back and forth. Ruby must've abandoned the chase at one point; now his friend was curled up in his lap, purring comfortingly. He gave Ruby a gentle pet between the ears.

"It's not that all that stuff keeps happening around me. The problem is that it affects the people around me, too. My friends keep getting hurt because of me," Jaden mumbled.

"Because of you?" Jesse rose an eyebrow at Jaden.

"Look at what's happened! Chazz, you lost your soul to the Shadow Riders our first year, and so did everyone else involved in that. And then, our second year, you were one of the first people pulled into the Society of Light. Almost the whole school got dragged into it. And then our third year..." Jaden shivered. "Everyone lost their duel energy, we all got pulled into other dimensions, we lost Jesse, Jesse was possessed by Yubel, and I sent everyone else to the stars myself. I...thought you were all dead...and then after that, Nightshroud nearly dragged the world into darkness, and I was the only person left! Everyone else was gone! I can't..." Jaden visibly deflated. "I can't keep puttiing everyone in danger every time something happens. With the Light of Destruction always around, and Nightshroud could come back at any minute, I have to be careful. I have to keep you all safe."

“Jay...” Jesse could see one glaring issue in all this, and it was terrifying. “What about you? What if something happens to you?”

”It won’t,” came Jaden’s quick response. “It can’t. I’ll be fine, I have to be.”

”It could, and you don’t have to be,” Jesse pointed out. “I’m not saying I don’t believe in you. But anything can happen. No one can win every duel they play.”

”I don’t think I can’t lose,” Jaden agreed. “But with the powers of Darkness...I don’t have a choice.” He clenched his hands together in his lap. “Losing isn’t an option. I may not have a choice, but you guys do. I don’t want you guys to be put in danger in my battles.”

”What do you mean, you don’t have a choice? You’re Jaden Yuki,” Chazz told him. “You’re the guy that defies destiny when no one else can. You didn’t care about that stuff before.”

”Yeah, well, this is different,” Jaden backpedalled.

”How?!” Chazz asked.

This line of questioning probably wasn’t going to get them anywhere. Defying destiny wasn’t necessarily the issue here, unless Jaden was implying it was his destiny to fight alone. “Besides, by avoiding us and not talking to anyone, you’re not giving us a choice,” Jesse said. “You’re making it for us. Maybe we _do_ want to help.”

”I know. That’s what I’m afraid of,” Jaden replied quietly. His gaze was now aimed down at his lap.

“Right. You don’t anything to happen to us.” Jesse shifted closer to Jaden, trying to get Jaden to look at him. He was almost successful; Jaden looked up a little at least. “But we don’t want anything to happen to you. You  _could_ get hurt out here. And if you do get hurt, and we could've helped but we didn't, you know how we'd feel."

"...Yeah. You'd feel awful, guilty. That's how I felt, anyway, when we left you behind," Jaden reflected.

"Exactly." Jesse smiled. "So let us help out."

"We're not expecting you to change what you're doing right away, Jaden. Or to get it right on the first try," Chazz said. "Believe me, I know it can be really hard to ask for help sometimes."

"Yeah, we understand how you got to this point," Jesse added. Chazz shot him a look and he sighed, correcting himself, "I do, anyway. You really do care about us, and that's why you feel like you need to push us away. But you don't have to. We can do it together."

"So don't feel like you're not doing good enough," Chazz went on. "You're fine. Just put in some effort, at least! We had some close calls at Duel Academy, but we got through them all, and we did it together. The Chazz works best alone, of course, but slackers are different. You work better with friends and with teams. We did it before, and we can do it now, as many times as we need to."

Jaden hummed in thought, carefully unclenching his hands and trying to relax himself. "...I'll try."

"And that's all we need, dork." Chazz reached over and ruffled the hair on top of Jaden's head. Jaden laughed, half-heartedly trying to swat his hands away.

"We won't let you down, Jay," Jesse assured Jaden, giving him a thumbs up.

Somewhere, in the back of his mind, Jesse thought he heard a voice whisper, "Thank you." His smile grew just a little brighter.


End file.
